BRISTOL — The bond between a mother and son, long strained by divorce, was severed in a cool Bristol courtroom Thursday afternoon.

Alice Pompei, 53, was sentenced to three years of probation for keeping her son's $90,000 trust fund from him. She was arrested after he filed a criminal complaint. Her lawyer plans an appeal.

``I love my son very much,'' Pompei said while sobbing in a court hallway after the sentencing. ``But he lost his mother today.''

Punishing Pompei was never her son Gregory's intention, said his lawyer, Bryan Maccariello. He just wanted access to the money.

``We didn't expect it to turn out this way,'' said Maccariello, who said his client would not pursue any civil action against his mother.

In addition to the probation, Pompei, who teaches computer science in Burlington, was ordered to perform 75 hours of community service per year during her probation, to get psychiatric counseling and to wear an electronic monitoring device under conditions to be set by the probation office.

A two-year prison sentence on a conviction of first-degree larceny was suspended.

The case is partly the result of a messy divorce and bad feelings on both sides.

Pompei was convicted of withholding her 22-year-old son's trust fund after he turned 21, when he was legally entitled to it. She had contended that the money was supposed to be used only for college and that she was afraid her son would squander it.

Pompei was convicted on May 24 after 40 minutes of deliberation by a six-member jury.

Pompei and her husband, Nicholas Pompei, divorced in 1989. Although her husband had custody of their son, Alice Pompei remained the custodian of his trust fund.

Pompei invested the money, tripling the $30,000 principal. During the seven years she was custodian of the account, she never took any of the money for herself, her lawyer said.

Gregory Pompei tried to collect the money after turning 21 on June 8, 1996, but his mother had withdrawn it two weeks earlier. Alice Pompei refused to return the money, claiming her son would not spend it on school. Her lawyer, Alfred F. Morrocco Jr., denied the trust fund had been set up under the state's Uniform Gifts to Minors Act, which requires the money's release when the child turns 21.

``When the fund was created, it was only indicated that the money was to be spent on his education,'' Morrocco said. ``It was not deposited under the Uniform Gifts to Minors Act. Anytime he wanted to go to college, he had access to the money.''

Gregory Pompei went to the police, and his mother was arrested at her Burlington home.

``It's been so devastating that my own son, that I loved for so many years, could do this to me,'' Pompei said after the conviction. However, Gregory Pompei said he and his mother had been estranged since his parents' divorce.

At an earlier hearing, several character witnesses for Alice Pompei described her as a devout Christian who volunteered for her church, helped disabled people and did charity work.

``This is not a criminal,'' Morrocco said.

Morrocco maintained that Judge William Wollenberg was incorrect to apply the gift act to the case. He said the judge's instruction to the jury to consider the act resulted in his client's conviction.

``No money was ever taken. There's no larceny intent. This should never have been in a criminal court,'' Morrocco said.

After sentencing, Gregory Pompei said he intended to go to Bucknell University to start his third year of college and major in mathematics. He had attended Tunxis Community-Technical College. He said he would use the money for school ``and expenses, like fixing my car.''

Morrocco was skeptical. ``There's no guarantee he'll go to college,'' the lawyer said.